Jordan and Declan leaned forward and tried to look at the screen of my phone. "What are you doing?" They asked me in unison.

I pushed both of their faces away. "I'm texting Parker."

Declan wrinkled his nose. "Why?"

"I don't know, because I can?"

"You never texted me back," Jordan grumbled. "I sent you a text a while ago and you never replied back."

"I didn't?" I asked in confusion.

I looked at my messages in my phone and I saw an unopened text from Jordan. Suddenly there was a chime on Jordan's phone. He took his phone out and opened it.

"I'm doing nothing," he read aloud of my text message. Then he gave me a blank look. "Really?"

"Now I've replied to you. Happy?"

"Overjoyed," Jordan said sarcastically.

I went back to texting Parker. He had football practice to do so I was left hanging out with the guys afterschool for now. We were planning to meet up after his practice but at the moment we were texting when he had breaks. It was one of those rare occasions that I see them without the girls sticking with them like glue. Abby went shopping with Candice for new outfits, Bennett and Jordan made the excuse that they couldn't go so they went without them. Hannah has cheerleading practice, Declan was supposed to be there but he ditched the first chance he got.

The two of them continued annoying me, circling around me, trying to peer over my shoulder to read my messages.

Bennett sighed. "You guys should just leave her alone."

Jordan glared at him. "You should be just as mad as I am, Bent."

"But somehow, I'm not."

Declan smirked. "Yeah, that's 'cause the guy's a robot, emotionless."

"I'm not a robot."

He shrugged. "That's what they all say."

Jordan ignored the two as they argued back and forth of how Bennett's a robot. Declan had some really good points, but Bennett turned down every single one of them. Jordan just kept on trying to read the screen as I texted Parker. I finally had enough and set my phone down to glare at Jordan face to face.

"What is your problem?" I snapped.

"You never text us, how come he's different?"

"Your texts consist of cute animal pictures doing stupid things, Declan keeps on sending me sports stats and Paladins memes making fun of them, and Bennett never texts me."

Bennett shrugged. "I didn't see the point honestly, I see you every day at school."

I heard a ring from my phone, I looked down at it and glared at Declan. "Really?"

Declan burst out laughing. "Oh c'mon, you gotta admit, that's funny."

"Well I don't like it," Jordan said to me as he crossed his arms. "What if something bad happens to us and you're too busy texting the jock? Or what if you're in trouble? Who you gonna call?"

"Ghostbusters," I replied, not missing a beat.

"No, really."

"I'll call the cops, obviously."

"What if they're not available?"

I looked at him in disbelief. "They're the cops! How will they not going to be available? They're too busy eating donuts?"

"Yeah, they are!"

I rolled my eyes. "Then what do you propose we do, oh troubled one?"

"I got this app where we can-"

"Let me guess, it's like some sort of chat app?"

"Well since you don't do any social media-"

"-because I don't want to set myself up for cyber bullying," I finished. "Which isn't much help given I have my own website."

"That's where my program comes in."

I blinked. "Wait, your program?"

"Yeah, I came up with this program app where we'll be able to chat with each other at the same time it has GPS so we'll know where we are-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said, stopping him. "And why exactly will I agree to this just so you guys can know where I am exactly?"

Jordan sighed. "Let me start all over. Trace Ace-"

"Really, that's what you came up with? Trace Ace?"

"Yes, a lot of good ones were taken, this is the only one I can come up with," Jordan snapped. "Now as I was saying. It's a program I came up with-" he said as he showed me the app on his phone "-We're able to communicate with each other anywhere, everywhere. We could have group chats or personal chats, call or text for either. No one can hack into our messages like the hackers or the government, total privacy. It can be used both on your phone and laptop. We'll be able to know where everyone is with GPS, but again, total privacy from hackers or the government."

"And that's where I have to stop you there. Why would I want you guys to know where I am every second of the day?" I demanded.

"For your safety," Bennett answered, coming into the conversation.

I blinked. "What?"

"Naomi, you're bullied on a daily basis. We need to know where you are to make sure nothing bad happens anymore. And even without the bullying you can't forget us-" he said, referring to themselves as the Three Musketeers "-There are people who would want to hurt us and will hurt you to get to us. And we're not going to sit back and let it happen. "

I remembered that video footage of them in that shoot out. I wanted to tell them I saw it, but for some reason I couldn't say it.

"It's not like we're going to track you everywhere you go," Jordan explained to me. "You could turn the GPS off whenever you want to-" he said as he showed me how to do it "-whenever you want some privacy. But don't turn it off all the time. It'll be useless if you do."

"And here's the big part of this app," Jordan said. "See this huge red button over here? If you press it, it'll automatically alert everyone where you are. That's for personal emergencies. The blue one next to it will be for 911, okay?"

I nodded.

"Now let me show you the best part of this thing."

"What can be better than two buttons to use for emergencies?" I asked him.

"This-" he said, showing me his phone.

I squinted at the screen and saw what looked like an animated version of Jordan. The two certainly looked the same, same blonde hair and blue eyes. This one though was wearing a black button down with the sleeves rolled up. He had a beret on top of his head and an apron over his outfit with paint splatters on it. There was also a huge paintbrush strapped behind him.

"What is-"

"That's my Ace, the avatar in the program," he said proudly. "That's the point of it the name, tracing your Ace. Don't give me that look. I got really bored and came up with this.

"Why the whole painter theme for you then?"

"'Cause ladies dig a Jordan in a beret," he said with a flirty grin.

"You know it's not true when he's talking about himself in third-person," Declan said.

Jordan ignored him and said, "Look at Bennett's and Declan's Aces."

He clicked on something and showed me his phone again. Bennett's "Ace" looked like him as well, black hair, blue eyes, and even has a slouch on him. There avatar was wearing a chef's hat and jacket on it, while being armed with a huge frying pan. I looked at Bennett, at the Ace, then back at Bennett.

Bennett frowned. "What?" He demanded, getting defensive.

"N-nothing," I muttered, not wanting to say it anymore.

Then there was Declan's Ace that was-

"Why is your Ace shirtless?" I asked him.

Declan grinned. "The question isn't why, it's why not."

I rolled my eyes at that. His Ace had the same brown hair and brown eyes. It wore only red basketball shorts and red boxing gloves with headphones hanging around the neck.

"Okay, these are cute and all, but what's the use?"

"Well besides the artistic genius behind this," Jordan said, glaring at me for not appreciating it more, "When looking at the map, you'll be able to tell who's who along with who is where."

He showed me what he meant by clicking another button showing a huge map of the city. There were three icons all near each other, a paintbrush, chef's hat, and boxing glove.

"You can click on any one them and chat with them personally." He told me, doing so to open up the character profile. Jordan continued showing me features of his program.

I couldn't help but be a bit aw from this. Whenever I see Jordan I see a funny prankster with something up his sleeve, which is usually another joke or genius prank. But here he is talking about a program he came up with like he was some nerd behind that goofy grin.

"How did you do this?" I asked him.

"Is that some sort of trick question? You just press that button over-"

"No, I mean, how did you make any of this?"

Jordan paused then winked at me. "That's a secret."

That's when I learned that I don't know anything about these guys. I didn't know that Bennett was an heir to Frazico until he somehow slipped it and Raymond's dad talked about it. Who knows what else I don't know about these guys. Jordan began to upload the app on my phone and now was waiting for it to download.

I sighed. "Well, it's not like you have to make userna- That look. No, you actually do?"

"I got bored and-"

"Let me see!" I exclaimed in excitement, looking over his shoulder to see the screen.

"Here, here," Jordan said, handing me his phone.

My eyes scanned the screen as I rolled the page down and burst out laughing.

I looked at Bennett. "BentOverBckwrds1?"

Bennett let out a sigh. "I didn't want to make my own profile, so I had Jordan do it for me. Biggest mistake of my life, but I'm too lazy to change it."

"JorDunDunDun2?" I snickered.

"Well you know the piano riff to make things really dramatic, dun-dun-dun?" Jordan asked me with a grin. "Well that's what you should feel like when you see my username."

"Or you know, the Jaws theme song," Declan offered.

Jordan snorted. "That's your theme song. Everytime you're walking my way, I hear the music in my mind."

Before they can start a fight, I said, "and DeckDaHalls3?" I snorted, staring at Declan. "Out of everything, why did you choose that?"

Declan shrugged. "It's like a gift of Christmas when I deck someone." He gave me a straight face as he said, "Fa la la la la, la la la la." That made me burst out laughing again.

"Okay, make your username and customize your Ace." Jordan said as he got his phone back and returned me mine.

I sighed. "It's like joining another online gaming or something," I muttered.

"Another?" Jordan repeated.

"Shut up."

I thought for a while and typed in a username. I sat down and made this "Ace" avatar of Jordan's program. To be honest, it was surprising seeing all the types of outfits and accessories. I wouldn't be surprised if this will be a big hit and Jordan can get big bucks if he sells this out. But he hasn't, I guess he wants to keep this program just for us. Soon I was finished with the profile. I saved the profile and requested to be part of the guy's group which is called, you guess it, The Three Musketeers. Instantly, I got accepted in by Jordan.

"Let's see your user-" Jordan paused then snorted. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "You laughed at our usernames, but yours is NaOhMe4?"

I shrugged. "It's for people like you to read better. That's how you say my name correctly, Na-oh-me."

"But why four?"

I shrugged again. "I just thought since you guys got numbers, I should be number four, right?"

All three of them frowned at this.

"What? What's wrong?"

Bennett shook his head. "No, it's nothing."

"Your Ace is so cute," Jordan cooed.

I held back an eyeroll, it looks exactly like me. With long brown hair and light brown eyes with nerd glasses over them. It has a standard outfit of a grey sweater and black jeans. I had a giant pencil strapped at the back through, it looked cool to do it. Imagine carrying a huge pencil in real life. I can erase people if I wanted to, that would be pretty cool. Eraser, I choose you!

"Okay." I said, and then I clicked something on my phone.

"Hey, why did you turn off your GPS?" Jordan asked me.

"I just wanted to see if it works." I said as I turned it back on, the glasses icon appearing again on the map.

"Well, I respect your privacy and all, but be sure to keep it on at all times, okay?" Jordan told me.

I sighed. "Yes mother." I looked down at the app and smiled. "Hey, maybe I can have Parker join-"

"No," they said in unison.

I glared at them. "Why not?"

"This is only for the four of us, no one else." Jordan said sternly. "I don't want anyone else in our group."

"Don't you think that's a bit unfair?"

"No, I don't," Jordan said. "I made this program for the four of us, and it will only for the four of us."

I gritted my teeth. "Fine," I grumbled.

I heard a chime from my phone. I looked down at it again and smiled as I read Parker's text. Then I began to reply to message. Jordan waved his hand in front of me, but I was too distracted to writing back to Parker to get annoyed by it.

"And we lost her again."

Suddenly all three of their phones chimed at once. The guys took out their phones and read the message I sent them. Then they looked at me and smiled. My smiled slowly widened as I went back to texting Parker.

"Naomi!" Someone called out to me.

I looked up and my face lit up. The guys looked up and frowned.

"Hey Parker," I greeted. "What are you doing here?"

He jogged over to us and paused to catch his breath. "Practice ended early," he told me with a grin. "I ran all the way here to meet up with you."

I got up from the bench I was sitting on. "Well, we're going then."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where are you guys going?" Jordan asked us.

"We're going to get a bite to eat." I told him. "Should I ask your permission?"

"Yes."

"That was sarcasm," I told him.

"I don't care, I'm taking it as being sincere."

"Okay then, can Parker and I go eat somewhere?"

"No."

I looked at Parker. "Let's go then."

"Hold it!" Jordan said, grabbing us both by the collar, making us halt to a stop. "I said no!"

"I know, and as a rebellious teen I'm disobeying you and going anyway."

Jordan let go of us and looked back at his friends. "Can she do that? She can't do that, can she?"

"Will it make a difference if I said yes?" Bennett asked.

Declan just yawned. "I'm hungry."

"Yeah, that's it!" Jordan exclaimed as he turned back to the both of us. "We're coming with you."

I laughed then gave him a blank stare. "No."

"Why not?" Jordan whined like a little kid.

"You guys will be the third, fourth, and fifth wheel." I told them bluntly. "And besides you got each other, go do something together. It's one of those rare times you're not on a leash with your girlfriends."

Declan frowned. "Are you actually comparing us to dogs?"

"With the girls?" I asked. "Yes, I am."

They shrugged, agreeing with it themselves.

"But we want to hang out with you," Jordan whined again. "You're always with Parker and you rarely hang out with us anymore."

"Yeah, that's because you're always with your girlfriends."

"Well, now we're not," he said. "So what do you say? Want to hang out?"

"No."

Jordan feigned as if I shot him, clutching his chest and staggering back a bit. He dramatically fell on his knees and face first on the ground. He groaned something incoherently, something about betrayal. I don't speak fluent in dying, sadly. Bennett and Declan ran towards their fallen friend and kneeled next to him. Declan turned him around and put his head against his chest as Bennett checked Jordan pulse.

"Is he okay?"

"He's losing a lot of blood from Naomi's harsh refusal bullet."

"Jordan, come back to us!"

"He's too young to die!"

"You're not going to die today, Wallace, not today!"

"Only I could kill you, not Naomi! She's too lucky!"

Parker looked at me. "Does this happen often?"

"More often than you think," I said sadly, then I smiled at him. "So I was thinking of going to this café I know..."

We walked towards Parker's Mitsubishi as Jordan cried out about seeing the light and feeling death's cold grip around him.

-

"Welcome to The Mad Hatter, and no, we're not mad or have side jobs as hatters- Sorry, I still need to work on that one."

I chuckled. "No, it's alright, that's good."

Cameron grinned. "Thanks. I'm Cameron, and I'll be your waiter, given I'm the only waiter here. Have you two decided what you wanted?" He asked us.

"I'll have the Tuscan chicken sandwich again," I told him. "I've been craving for that ever since I had it. I'll have a side of sweet potato fries and lemonade with it too."

"Will do," he said as he wrote down my order. "And you?" He asked Parker.

"From what Naomi keeps on going on and on about your Tuscan chicken, I guess I'll have that too. But I'll have that with some Coke."

"Okay then." Cameron said, getting the menus back. "Two Tuscan chickens, a side of sweet potato fries, lemonade and Coke. That'll be all?"

"We'll order desserts later," I told him.

He nodded. "I'll be back with your drinks then." Cameron paused then asked, "How come your friends aren't here with you?"

"It's only just the two of us," I said.

Cameron smiled, getting it. "Oh, a date, I get it-" he gave me a wink "-Well, I should go give your order to the chef then." He gave us a childish bow and left towards the kitchen.

I chuckled to myself and looked back at Parker.

"So you went here with the guys?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Yeah, it was... fun."

That was the only way I could describe it honestly.

"Don't you think you were a bit harsh with them?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It was when you told them that you didn't want to bring them along. It just seems to me that they miss hanging out with you."

I was quiet for a moment. "I miss hanging out with them too," I admitted. "But they have their girlfriends, so why do I care? They chose them over me."

"Maybe they regret doing that," Parker said.

"What makes you think that?"

Parker shrugged. "I don't know. They just seemed kinda sad, especially when they're with their girlfriends."

"Then why are they with them in the first place?"

"Beats me, ask them yourself."

Cameron came back with our drinks and told us that our food is almost ready. Another couple came into the café and he went to seat them. I twirled the straw inside my lemonade, watching as the ice cubes spin in the cup.

"It's just..."

Parker paused from taking a sip of his drink. "It's just what?"

"It's just that I'm mad at them," I told him. "They just went off and dated those girls, never even telling me they liked them in the first place. It took me by surprise. I thought we were friends and friends tell each other things. And then they started to hang out with them more than with me, it made me mad." I paused from twirling the straw and just stared into my lemonade. "So I went and did the same thing just so they could feel what I felt. What it feels like to choose someone you like over your friend. And now all of a sudden they want to hang out with me. I'm sorry, but I didn't know I only exist to them when they're bored and have nothing else to do."

"Don't say that, Naomi. Maybe they always wanted to hang out with you, but the girls-"

"Are just an excuse to them," I finished. "If they wanted to hang out with me, they should have tried harder. Well, it's too late for that, I got you. They don't know what they're missing."

Two plates of Tuscan chicken sandwiches were placed right in front of us.

"Yeah," he agreed, looking at his sandwich. "They really don't."

Cameron set a plate of sweet potato fries between us. "I hope you enjoy. Now excuse me, I gotta go serve the couple over at table number five, they take forever to order. They keep asking questions when they could be eating by now. I'm willing to give them something on the house just so they could stop." The man waved his hand to Cameron, probably wanting to ask another question. "I swear, if it's another question of how many calories there is in the sandwich, I'm about to go mad myself. Do you see me as the café's mascot?" We chuckled at his joke as he walked over to the couple.

Parker and I dug into our sandwiches.

"You weren't kidding, this really is good."

"I told you," I said. "And they aren't good, they're great!"

We shared the sweet potato fries that were beyond of what I imagined. We were finished with the sandwiches and fries in mere minutes. But it was so good we couldn't help eating it. I told Cameron to give my compliments to the chef and he only told me that was only going to boost his ego. But he did anyway, and he us a complimentary apple crumble pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

"I don't mind boosting the guy's ego now," I said with a chuckle.

"Maybe we should do it more often then."

I scooped a piece of the pie with ice cream and held it out to Parker.

"Here comes the airplane," I cooed.

Parker closed his eyes opened his mouth, waiting for the free pie. But then he opened his eyes and looked at me in confusion.

"Oh, this pie is really good," I said. "Parker, you have to try this."

"Hey, I thought you were going to feed me some."

I snorted. "Since when? I was talking to myself, not you."

"You can be such a tease sometimes," he grumbled as he took a scoop for himself.

We continued eating the pie which was so good. The warm pie was melting the vanilla ice cream that was on top of it. It was as genius as root beer float with ice cream in it, I think they make those here...

"Naomi, can I ask you something?"

"Ask away," I said between bites.

"Will you go out with me?"

"But we're already on a date, right?"

"Right."

"So on another date, then?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm asking you, will you go out with me."

I smiled as I took another bite of the pie. "Yeah sure, when?"

"No, will you go out with me?" He repeated.

"I already told you, yes. When do you-"

"Naomi, will you be my girlfriend?"

I stopped in mid-chew, just blinking at him in confusion. I was going through with so many emotions: shock, confusion, disbelief, astonishment, surprise and so many others. I was so speechless I didn't know what to say. I mean who would? So I was just awkwardly chewing the rest of my pie as I slowly got my thoughts together. What am I supposed to do? This never happened to me, and I never thought it would ever happen to me. But here we are.  So I said the next best thing.

"What?"

He took a deep breath. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Again, what?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Say it again."

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Now three times fast."

"Will you be my girlfriend? Will you be my girlfriend? Will you-" he caught himself and frowned at me. "That's not funny."

I held back a smile. "Actually, it kinda is."

Parker suddenly got up from his seat and walked over to my side of the table. Then he got down on one knee in front of me.

"What are you doing?" 

"Just hear me out."

"Don't you think we're going too fast?" I asked him nervously in a joking matter.

"Naomi, please."

"Okay, but just sit back down," I told him. "You're kinda freaking me out right now."

"Oh, I thought girls would dig this," he said, referring to the down on one knee part.

"The only thing this girl digs is this apple pie. Now please, sit down."

He hesitated and went to back to his seat. Parker took a deep breath than began.

"Naomi, I've liked you the moment you smacked me at the back of my head, telling me to get a grip when tutoring me. We've gone on a few dates and you weren't like any girl I have ever met. And I want to be the boyfriend of this unique girl I want as my girlfriend. Naomi, would you be my girlfriend?"

Again, I had no idea what to say. And Cameron was no help.

At the sidelines he was chanting, "Say yes, say yes, say- Ow! What did you do that for?" He whined at the cook who must have smacked him with something metallic from the sound of it, like a spatula or even a frying pan.

I smiled at him. "Of course I would."

Suddenly we heard another smack. We looked up and saw the couple over at table five. The guy was rubbing his shoulder as he glared at his girlfriend.

"Why can't you be that romantic?" The lady demanded. "When you asked me out all you said was, "wanna date?" She said in a mocking voice.

"Geez, I'm sorry." He got up and was about to kneel in front of her to do the same thing, but she looked away, her arms crossed.

"No, it's too late for that," she snapped.

"Fine," the guy muttered, sitting back down.

The both of us chuckled and Parker sat back down.

"Check please!" Parker called out.

Cameron came back with the check grinning at us. "You came into this café as singles and came out as a couple. Man, this is romantic."

We grinned at each other.

"Yeah, I know."

Then after a heated argument, I finally gave in and paid for the check. Nah, I'm kidding, Parker paid for the check. Next time I'll pay though, I'll pay. We got up from our table then thanked Cameron and the chef for the meal and left the café.

Parker had his arm around me as we walked down the street to the car. He opened the door for me as I took a seat, and jogged to the other side of the car to get into the driver's seat. The both of us looked at each other and shared a smile. Then we drove off to the sunset. 

And that's the end of the story! Thank you so much for reading my book and-

Nah, I'm just messing with you. Man, I'm evil. (Shakes head)

Sorry for the lateness, but at least it's here! I cut this chapter in half. It used 8000 something words and that's 12 pages, so I decided to cut it in half to make it 5000 something. Well what do you think? I bet a lot of you either hate me or love me. Hopefully more of the latter... Sorry everyone, but just think, everyone deserves to happy sooner or later, especially Naomi. If you don't like it, let me just tell you: Patience grasshoppers, something will be coming, something big. Even if you do hate that Parkomi finally happening scene, you should still love me for bringing the boys back. I haven't had them for the last chapters so you guys would miss them and appreciate them more. I'm happy reading the comments saying you miss the guys, and I miss them too. I was honestly getting tired of the Parkomi lovey-dovey stuff and wanted some Musketeer action again.

But before I forget, this chapter is dedicated to Buggzie. She was awesome enough to recommend my book with this brilliant review, I love it. She's a Parkomi fan so I'm happy to dedicate this chapter for a Parkomi fan. Buggzie, I hope you love this chapter. 

RubixCube89201